De Anza Shotokan Karate Club

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Fudodachi (Sochin-dachi)

Written by Georgios Kalomiros 10/2/2005

Introduction

I decided to do some independent research on fudodachi. My methodology was to follow through the books I have in order of age and instructor era, then to move on to video. When examining books, I considered both text and illustration. However, following the adage of, "Do as I say, not as I do," I place more weight towards the text of the books in question rather than their example. Thusly, I also put more strength in the information in those books than in any videos I examined. Here are my findings:

Gichin Funakoshi

Karate Jutsu and Karate-do Kyohan

It is important to note that there is no mention of fudodachi at all in the book Karate Jutsu. The first mention of fudodachi is actually in Funakoshi's Karate-do Kyohan1. It is important to note, however, that according to the translator, fudodachi is an addition to the second edition of the book2 and that, in fact, the second edition of this was produced after Funakoshi's death3. This fact, puts forth suspicions that the stance did not come from Funakoshi himself, but perhaps from a senior student instead. However, it can be argued that Chinte is a kata from Funakoshi's time, even though it is absent in these books, and thus so is fudodachi.

In any case, the text description of the stance is as follows:

Immovable Stance (Fudo-dachi)
This stance is formed from the [front stance] by bending the back leg slightly and twisting the hips into a [half-facing] position (ie, with the trunk rotated away from a full front position).

There are also illustrations of note at this part of the text. First there a series of pictures which show examples of the stances4. Three pictures came to my attention: the front stance, side stance, and immovable stance illustrations. The front stance and side stance illustrations look just as we would expect them to, with little to no variation on how we perform those same stances today. Then, I examined the immovable stance in relation to those two. The illustration seems to confirm that the immovable stance is most like the front stance. The foot placement seems identical as does the foot positioning, with the possible extra out-twisting of the rear foot in the immovable stance. The rear side hip does appear to be pulled back more than in the immovable stance than in the immovable stance. The rear knee in the immovable stance is bent, but less so than the front knee, and at in the same rough direction as the rear foot. The center of gravity in the immovable stance seems to be slightly less forward than in the front stance, but it is also clear that the center of gravity is not evenly between the feet as it is in the side stance. The other illustrations of note at this point of the book are diagrams displaying the foot positions and center of gravity for each stance4. In these diagrams, the foot positioning for the front stance and immovable stance are identical. The inside edge of the front foot from heel to big toe is aligned straight forward. The inside edge of the rear foot from heel to big toe is aligned about forty five degrees outward. The foot placement is nearly identical from front stance to immovable stance. The illustration shows some gap between the each foot and seichusen in the front stance. In the immovable stance illustration, the inside edge of the front foot is along the seichusen of the stance, and the rear heel just touches. Lastly, even though the illustration is very small, it seems to agree with my observation of the weight placement in the pictures. The weight is forward in the front stance, and slightly less so in the immovable stance. However, the weight does seem slightly closer to the front heel than the rear heel. I think it important to note, however, that these diagrams are very small and subtle variations could be due to error in the typesetting technique used.

Masatoshi Nakayama

Dynamic Karate

I found Nakayama's book to be quite difficult to understand when it came to explaining the stances5. For each stance, the book provides, two diagrams of foot placement and position with knee and weight placement, at least two if not more pictures of each stance, and some text describing key points of each stance. The pictures are all of Nakayama performing the stances in question, but the diagrams, pictures and text rarely seem to match up. To start, the diagram of the front stance is rather different from Funakoshi's. Both feet are parallel in position, with a slight twist to the side. The twist is to the extent that the outside edge of the front foot, from heel to pinkie toe, is actually pointing slightly inward towards seichusen. The rear foot is shown as being parallel to the front foot, and the weight is slightly forward of center. In the case of the front stance, most of the pictures and diagrams match up with the text. Nakayama's rooted stance, in the text, pictures, and diagrams much more closely resembles the side stance than the front stance. The only difference is the feet are turned slightly in the direction of the facing.

Shigeru Egami

The Heart of Karate-do

According to Egami, the immovable stance is a newer stance than the traditional stances like front stance and cat-leg stance6. My guess would be that he means new in relation to Shotokai karate. His descriptions of the stances to vary greatly from our own practice. In his description of the modern approach towards front stance7, he claims the front stance should bend the rear knee slightly, turn the body completely sideways, turn the front foot slightly outward and the read foot slightly inward. To Egami, the front stance is a variation of the immovable stance, and not the other way around. Egami's immovable stance8 is described as having the rear leg bent, and the weight centered. In his illustrations and supporting text, he describes immovable stance as being like a transition stance just before the full extension of the front stance. The foot positioning and placement are the same, but the weight placement and body facing are different.

Hirokazu Kanazawa

Shotokan Karate International Kata (vol. 1)

Kanazawa relates a description of the immovable stance in his description of the Sochin kata9. He also makes a connection between front stance, immovable stance and side stance. In his description, one must bend and exert outward pressure on both knees. He also notes that one must shift the center of gravity to the front leg. In his photos, however, the stance appears to just be a diagonal side stance, based on foot positioning and placement and apparent weight placement.

Analysis

Fudo dachi seems to be one of the most disagreed upon stances in Shotokan karate. There is debate about whether or not the stance even comes from a time before Funakoshi's death. There is debate over whether the stance is named fudo- or Sochin-dachi, even the general consensus is that fudodachi is the canonical name, and Sochin-dachi is just a way of referring to the same stance when speaking of the kata Sochin since the stance is so heavily prominent there. Kanazawa seems to be the exception in that he claims the kata is named after the stance, but I will presume this was just an error in translation or editing. Most describe the stance as being a blend of the front and side stances, even though they seem to disagree on exactly how they are mixed. There is question over the foot placement. Most seem to place the feet as they are placed in front stance. Funakoshi's post-mortum edition of the Kyohan seems to place the feet closer in towards seichusen. There is a fairly even split over the foot positioning. Some position the feet just like front stance, and some place the feet not unlike the side stance, but twisted forward. There is also an equal amount of contention over the distribution of the weight in the stance. Some place the weight squarely centered between the legs. Some place the weight towards the front leg, but typically less so than the front stance. One element that seems to be consistent though is the overall length of the stance. In all depictions, it seems that the immovable stance should have the same length as the front stance. The easiest place to see this is in depictions of the kata Chinte. In Nakayama's Chinte10 the diagrams clearly show the feet do not move from immovable stance to front stance and in his notes he points out that only the rear knee and hips need move for the transition. Depictions in Kanazawa's Chinte11 seem to back up this sentiment.

Based on my investigation, I'm inclined to belive that the purpose of the stance is to be a defensive alternative to the back stance. The immovable stance allows one to hold their ground against a frontal or sideways attack and more rapidly respond with a powerful counterattack in the front stance than from a back stance. Thus, the stance need not be very mobile, thus the name. It should be easy to shift to a front stance, thus the same foot placement at the front stance. The positioning of the feet is an interesting question. It seems that the position of the rear foot is not so much in contention as the front. Whether or not the front foot moves in the switch to front stance does not seem to impact the power of any technique performed, so my theory is that the position of the front foot must somehow relate to the defensive aspect of the immovable stance itself. With the front foot twisted inward, the front knee is in a better position to defend against attacks to the groin, but is more susceptible to attacks to the front knee itself. Twisting the front foot inward also seems to make twisting the torso sideways easier, perhaps to the defender's advantage. Last is the issue of weight distribution. Certainly, with the weight in the middle, the stance would be more mobile, but as the name implies, this is not a concern of this stance. Indeed, the name seems to imply that this stance is good for when one specificly does not want to move. A centered weight distribution would also seem to make unbalancing the defender from any particular direction more difficult, but, since the typical goal is to keep one's target to the front, where the counter will be most effective, this also sounds like a meager reasoning. Certainly, reserving the weight more towards the center from the front stance sounds like a good idea since it will increase the power of a counter attack if the weight is moving forward with the attack.

Conclusion

After my own investigation and analysis of the immovable stance, I have devised my own formula for how to form it. The feet should be placed exactly as in the front stance. This allows for the quickest transition to front stance for a counter attack. The rear foot should be positioned the same as in front stance, with the rear knee bent and pushed out. This maximizes the potential energy in the rear leg and minimizes the chance of losing forward momentum to foot shifting in transitions to front stance. The front foot should also be positioned as in the front stance. While this does leave the groin more exposed than with the foot twisted inward, it does not leave the front knee, which is closer target for an assailant, as vulnerable. Also, it reduces the number of moving parts in transitions to front stance, thereby increasing speed and effectiveness. This also has the drawback of not allowing the torso to be turned as far sideways, but I find the difference to be negligible. Lastly, the weight should be pulled back from the forward stance, but not to the middle. Putting one's weight in the center with the feet in the same position as the front stance would force the front knee to straighten. This would again make the closest point to an assailant an easier target to attack. What this results in is a stance that is identical to the front stance with the exception that the rear knee is pushed out to the side as much as flexibility will allow, the hips pulled back as far as flexibility will allow up to a sideways position, and the weight pulled back as far from the front as possible without compromising the front knee.

Footnotes

1 Karate-do Kyohan Stances, page 20
2 Karate-do Kyohan Stances, (translator's note) page 19
3 Karate-do Kyohan Foreward, page vii
4 Karate-do Kyohan Stances, page 20, illustrations 20, 24, and 26
5 Dynamic Karate Stances and Posture, pages 27, 32, 33, 39
6 The Heart of Karate-do Stances, page 43
7 The Heart of Karate-do Stances, page 48, 49
8 The Heart of Karate-do Stances, page 49, 50
9 Shotokan Karate International Kata (vol. 1) Sochin, page 187
10 Best Karate (vol. 9) Chinte, page 97
11 Shotokan Karate International Kata (vol. 2) Chinte, page 132